DDR with a Punch!
by Falruza Black
Summary: When Michelangelo comes home with another new video game system, everyone's a bit skeptical until Raphael turns the event into something else entirely.
1. Are You Game?

**DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) - A light to heavy leveled, physical activity-requiring video game, which needs a thin, plastic dance pad controller to be plugged into the system (ie: Playstation) and set flat on the floor in front of the screen, and the participant to stand on this pad, using their feet to press the "arrow" buttons (which are printed on the dance pad) in sync with those "arrows" which appear on the screen in a rolling fashion, to the beat of the music.**

**(Hopefully my own explanation of the acronym DDR works for most.) **

**The DDR games have been around forever and I conceived this story while playing the game recently during my mid-day workout. ;)  
**

**This is just a fun two-chapter short originally conceived as one chapter. It's also my first fan fic here or anywhere. Enjoy! :)**

**

* * *

  
**

**"DDR with a Punch!"**

**Chapter 1 - Are you Game?**

**

* * *

  
**

The lair door slammed shut.

"Guys! Check it out!" Michelangelo held up a large, thin, plastic shape in the air by its long black cord.

Donatello, walking forward, tilted his head curiously at the object. "What is it?"

Raphael, who was stretched out on the couch, raised his brows in frustration, putting his comic book down.

"Sheesh, Mikey, ya know we don't have any more room for your junk."

Mikey lowered the white plastic object, frowning. "It's not junk, Raph."

He passed by the couch to stand in the center of the room, proclaiming ecstatically to his brothers, "Do you even know what kinda' gold I just scored?! WE scored?!"

He strode over to the big screen TV in the main room, and set the object down in front of it, turning it carefully for a moment until he had it laying flat and seemingly in the right position.

His audience watched him with puzzled looks; Raph shaking his head in disapproval.

It was then that Leonardo noticed the other item in Mikey's possession. "Uh, Michelangelo? What's under your arm?"

"Oh! Hey Donny!" Ignoring Leo's question, he stood again and walked past him to set a rectangular, black box into his other brother's hands.

"Can Mr. Fix-it work his magic?", Mikey wiggled his eyebrows up at Don, grinning widely. "It's got a few glitches."

Don took the box gingerly, turning it over as he examined it. "I am guessing that this is a game system of some kind..."

"Yep!", Mikey squealed excitedly, clenching his hands together in anticipation as Raphael stood up from the couch with a loud grunt.

"I dunno. I have to figure out what's wrong with it first, in order to fix it. But I'm sure I can.", Don replied as he ran his hand along the backside of the device.

"That's great!" Mike motioned to his brothers with his 'finger-guns' firing off imagination bullets. "You guys have no idea how much fun we're about to have!"

He darted past Donatello, disappearing into the kitchen. "Let me know when you hit the jackpot, bro!"

Don stared down at the box, then at Leo and Raph. The sound of the microwave starting up could be heard from the other room, followed soon by the smell of cooking mozzarella.

Leonardo walked toward him, "You know what this means? He'll be spending even more time playing video games. And Master Splinter is already unhappy enough at his recent lapse in training."

"Not to mention, I'm getting the unpleasant feeling that he wants us to play with him.", Raph added.

Donatello started walking toward his room, "Well, it's not like we never play vids together...and I'm curious to see what the big deal is."

Raphael motioned his head toward the entertainment center, "He didn't even say what game it is we're playing, or what in the hell that plastic napkin over there is supposed to be about."

Leonardo turned his head to look at it as well, and then decided to do a better investigation. Raph silently began to follow him with his thumbs hanging casually from his belt at his sides.

Retreating to his room, Donatello began his task, keeping the door open and an ear out for the others.

From the kitchen, his mouth full of food, Mikey shouted, "You guys getting excited yet?!"

Raph and Leo's eyes crossed for a second as they stood over the square, plastic sheet trying to figure out what the colorful arrows and symbols printed on the white surface meant.

"Hey, Mikey! Where'd you find this thing?", Raph yelled back.

Coming back into the main room with a slice of pepperoni pizza in one hand and a glass of root-beer in the other, "In a used-games store. It came with the dance pad - that's that thing right there you're looking at - a game and a system...PS2 they called it. The system was kinda broken though, so they threw it in for free." Mikey idly began stepping on the plastic pad with his large feet, pretending to be playing the game.

Leo's voice became stern, "Michelangelo..."

Mikey was beginning to hum one the game's dance tunes as he took a sip of his cold drink.

"How much did this cost...before they added the freebie?"

Mikey replied, still humming, "It was all free. I traded a couple of my old games and one of my systems for it."

Raph and Leo looked at each other in surprise. Mikey, seeing this, stopped what he was doing and nodded his head smugly. "Didn't think I had any brains when it came to games, eh bros? Heh."

Raphael replied with a crooked smirk, snorting, "Yeah. Not really."

"Hey, guys. It should work now..." Donatello had re-entered the room and was walking toward the screen with a handful of cables in his hands.

Mikey hurriedly set his food down on the coffee table and rushed back to the TV, his face gleaming, "Ohhh Donny boy, I knew you could do it!"

Don slid the TV away from the wall and began hooking the cables up into it and into the back of the system box while the others watched. In a minute, Don appeared to be done, sliding the TV back into its spot. He knelt down in front of the game system, plugging the dance pad into it, and hit the power button on the TV first, followed by the system's.

An adventurous and promising theme song played for a moment as the TV screen began to glow with the system's title screen.

"YEEHAW!", Mikey shouted, jumping up, and giving Don a huge, crushing hug. "You're my best friend, Donny."

Grinning like a crazy bandit, Mikey pulled the game out from under his belt and slipped it into the game system, then stood back as it loaded.

Raph, Leo, and Don watched with their arms crossed as the chaotically, visually colorful intro began and the game announcer's voice piped in energetically, "Dance Dance Revolution Max 2!".

Raph lifted a brow as Leo smirked lightly; their intrigue growing as they watched.

Mikey stepped forward to stand in the middle of the dance pad, hitting a few symbols on it to get the game going. Rubbing his hands eagerly together and stretching his legs in an athletic manner, he waited as the song selection screen came up. A cheerful, energetic tune played while he flipped through his choices quickly.

Leo whispered to Don with an incredulous glance, "You'd think he'd played this before..."

In a handful of seconds, he hit his first song choice and suddenly became a flurry of foot motion, stepping on the pad's arrows skillfully as they scrolled up on the screen.

It seemed easy enough.

And then Mikey missed an arrow.

"Ooh! Looks like you screwed that one up, Mikey!" Raph jeered with a huge grin.

Leo bit his lip, trying not to comment...yet.

Mikey kept going, keeping his "health" meter up with every success, knowing he'd lose the game if it dropped too low. The game announcer's voice cheered him on with every arrow he hit right.

"Left, Right, Up, Up, Right...Split!...Down...", Don bobbed his head to the rhythm, speaking in a soft voice as his eyes followed the arrows, his feet subconsciously starting to mimic Mikey's.

"Hey Raph! Wanna try?!", Mikey huffed as his feet hit another good combo and then missed the next one. "Damn!"

"Maybe..." Raph stepped closer. "How about I punch you every time you miss one of those things?"

"Common Raph...", Leo tried to keep a chuckle in.

Mikey surprised them when he replied, "Great idea! It'll be good training!"

Raph's eyes and grin widened as he slammed a fist into his open palm, "Well, all right then!"

...

* * *

**Chapter 2 to conclude! DDR with a Punch! - "When DDR Attacks!"**


	2. When DDR Attacks!

**DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) - A light to heavy leveled, physical activity-requiring video game, which needs a thin, plastic dance pad controller to be plugged into the system (ie: Playstation) and set flat on the floor in front of the screen, and the participant to stand on this pad, using their feet to press the "arrow" buttons (which are printed on the dance pad) in sync with those "arrows" which appear on the screen in a rolling fashion, to the beat of the music.**

**(Hopefully my own explanation of the acronym DDR works for most.)**

**The DDR games have been around forever and I conceived this story while playing the game recently during my mid-day workout. ;)**

**This is just a fun two-chapter short originally conceived as one chapter. It's also my first fan fic here or anywhere. Enjoy! :)**

**

* * *

  
**

**"DDR with a Punch!"**

**Chapter 2 - When DDR Attacks!**

**

* * *

  
**

"Well, all right then!" Raphael walked over to stand right beside an optimistic Michelangelo.

"Alright, let me choose a good one...hm..." Mikey had finished the last song and was now flipping through the song selection again.

"Not too easy a song this time, eh Mikey?", Donatello teased, chuckling.

Raph winked knowingly back at Don for a split second before grinding his fist into his hand again, prepping for his first punching opportunity.

Leonardo was now sitting down on the edge of the couch cushions, resting his arms on his thighs, waiting eagerly for the carnage to begin.

"Pick one already, eh?" Raph scowled.

"Okay! Got it." Mickey hit his foot hard on the selecting symbol on the pad and the screen shifted to display the song's playful and distracting background effects.

The image of a crazed-looking barbarian peered back at them from behind the arrows that were starting to roll up the screen. The severely fast-paced song's jungle beat made Mikey regret his choice for a second.

"What the hell is that thing?", Raph pointed at the screen and then shoved Mikey lightly. "Hey, don't slip!"

Don and Leo both shouted with laughter in unison, "No cheating Raph!"

Mikey gulped as he just nearly missed hitting the first of the many arrow combos to appear. "D-d-dude...you suck..." His feet had to catch up quickly to match the arrows perfectly again.

Raph shrugged, "What? Gotta get your training in somehow, right?" His follow-up grin was beyond wicked looking.

Donatello covered his gaping mouth with a hand.

Leo just leaned back against the couch with a nod, keeping his lips closed tight; a wide smile stretching across his cheeks.

"OW!" Missing an arrow sent Raph's fist shooting into Mikey's upper arm without hesitation.

"You missed."

"I didn't say you had to hit me that hard, Ra-OW!" Another punch to Mikey.

"Then dodge, knuckle head!"

"Stop-OW! Damn it Raph!" Mikey slipped up again as the arrows shot up the screen.

It was getting harder to follow them the more his peripheral vision picked up the hovering 'Fist of Doom'.

Raphael punched again and missed.

"Good! Oh! But your feet didn't dodge!" Raph did a low sweep with his leg at Mikey's ankles making him fall flat on his back.

Mikey scrambled to get up, making the decision to continue the song, rather than wrestle Raph right there.

"Good choice!", Raph cheered, mockingly.

Growling, Michelangelo returned with gusto to the dance challenge.

Within a breath's span of time, Mikey had hit a wrong arrow due to the dance pad having shifted.

Upon failing to dodge a punch to his face, he decided he'd had enough.

Jumping off the dance pad to shove a laughing Raphael onto it, "Let's see you do better!" He rubbed at his bruised cheek.

Leo and Don were now completely lost to fits of laughter, clutching their guts.

"Fine.", Raph boasted, "I will!"

Mikey stepped back, chest heaving from his own attempts at the game.

Choosing a new song, the old one lost to an epic "FAIL!", Raphael got ready as the medium-paced, hip hop song title came up, cracking his knuckles once before the arrows started to appear.

Wrapping a hand slowly into a tight fist, Mikey shook it in Raph's face threateningly as he did an impression of Yosemite Sam, "Your turn, varmint."

As the song continued, Raph seemed to be doing a pretty good job for it being his first time. Mikey couldn't help but pout as his fist began to feel lonely.

Leo and Don just cheered Raph on. "Right on, Raph!" "Nice!"

Finally, Mikey saw his chance. A huge complex combo of arrows was coming up...

Sure enough, Raph missed!

"HA!" Mikey swung and hit nothing.

Blinking, he then frowned deeply. Raph had dodged and kept going. "Nee-nja!", he fired back.

"Hey, you gotta take your hits!", Mikey whined.

Coming into the main room from the dojo to see what his boys were up to, Master Splinter stretched a bit from his meditation session, making sure to remain as quiet as possible. A hot mug of green jasmine tea resting in one of his paws, he sipped at it as he watched silently from his new position behind the couch.

Mikey tried again, this time aiming for Raph's torso from the backside with a left hook.

Again nothing!

"DUDE!"

Raphael just laughed as his feet kept moving, hitting every arrow to the beat of the music.

"Okay, fine! How about you try a harder song then, eh? We'll see how you do-"

"Go Raphael!" Master Splinter's voice suddenly rang out in the room startling everyone. He took another sip of his tea.

The brothers turned their heads around in unison to see their father and master standing beside the coffee table, cheering on the madness.

"Master Splinter!" Leo jumped up from the couch, still grinning.

Mikey turned to Raph, who wasn't paying attention to the song for that single moment, and hit him square in the throat.

"UGH!" Raph clutched his neck sorely and punched Mikey in the chest. "OW! Hey, I hit you fair and square dude!"

Splinter began to walk toward them, the song finishing up behind them as they halted their attacks.

A loud "FAIL!" blasted from the speakers.

Donatello buried his face in his hands to hide his cackles.

Quietly setting his mug of tea on the top of the entertainment center, Master Splinter walked onto the dance pad.

Raph and Mikey took steps back without a uttering a word, looking at each other with raised brows, then at the other brothers who now also had equally confused and intrigued expressions on their faces.

"Hm..." Splinter considered which song pleased him and making his choice, he activated it.

At first, the arrows flew by without receiving an effort toward their purpose.

Bowing his head in acceptance toward his situation, he then reached his hand back behind him and made a beckoning motion.

"Come! Attack me.", he spoke in an amused and confident tone.

Leonardo leaped forward without a second thought, aiming a side kick to his master's head, who ducked low, coming up at an angle to shove Leo off balance.

His feet were now hitting each arrow that came up.

With one hand, eyes never leaving the screen, Splinter returned the attack toward Mikey, who was closest, sending him backwards with a back fist.

The game announcer bellowed, "Excellent!" as Splinter hit an arrow combo, artfully moving around Mikey's return blow to his shoulder.

Donatello delivered a low sweep that grazed the back of his master's knee at the same time that Mikey aimed for Splinter's chest and got a hard fist back in his already-bruised cheek.

Arrows continued to fly by as the song reached it peak; Splinter successfully hitting each one of them as he countered attacks from his students, initiating a number of them as well.

Leonardo appeared to his left throwing a variety of punches; right hook, upper cut, right reverse, left hook, left jab, on and on, each one dodged or blocked.

He even took a few return-smacks to his cheeks and arms from the now open-palmed mutant rat with the quick feet.

Raph slipped in at the last moment, just as the song ended with its final combo, coming right at Splinter's face with a hard elbow.

Out of thin air, their master's leg seemed to come, connecting a clean crescent kick to Raph's body; his heal coming down to rest on the last of the arrow buttons on the pad that needed to be hit in order to get the resounding and glorious...

"CLEARED!"

Throwing in a final pose with his arms crossed over his chest and his smug grin uplifted, he nodded once to the game and stepped off of the pad.

As the screen returned to the song selection menu, Splinter picked his tea mug back up and took a sip, turning to leave the room again.

The four mutant, ninja turtles just stared back at him.

Peering over his shoulder, he added, "I like this new training exercise, my sons."

With that, he stepped back into the candle-lit dojo.

***

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed the short! :) I've got my first big story in progress now too, so if you're interested, be sure to Subscribe to me for this and other fun shorts!**

**~ Falruza Black**


End file.
